Mobile terminals have become very popular these days and many functions are installed on PHSs (Personal Handyphone System), cellular phones, and other mobile terminals that can be used in communication as mobile stations. The setting of these functions and the selection of operations are done through switches or a keyboard provided on the terminal, for example, by selecting items from a menu. On the other hand, the need to make the terminal small and lightweight reduces the area available for the switches and the keyboard, limiting the number of switches and keys which will be required for implementing sophisticated functions.
FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a conventional cellular phone. Referring to FIG. 10, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 21 displays information thereon and an operation area 22 comprises switches (buttons), a ten-key pad, and so on, to allow characters to be entered by pressing keys multiple times.
For example, one key is allocated to the “A”  row (meaning a first row of the Japanese “Hiragana” syllabary). This key is pressed once to enter “A”, twice to enter “I” , three times to enter “U” , four times to enter “E” , and five times to enter “O” . In many cases, 10 to 12 keys are arranged to serve both as Hiragana character entry keys and numeric keys.